ntage of nearer supplies of
cotton, and (b) by the known presence of much half-occupied white labour
in the vicinity of otherwise suitable sites close to the cotton-fields.
It must be borne in mind that the whole calculation had not to be reared
merely upon an intangible theoretical basis. Cotton mills already
existed in the South, and comparisons of costs of production, as things
were then, afforded some groundwork for judgment.

As regards the first of the two special advantages mentioned above, the
saving in the cost of carriage of the raw material is not commonly held
to be high. Transport to the cotton ports is so well organized and
sea-carriage is so cheap that Lancashire's distance from the source of
her raw material is not a very appreciable handicap. A good deal of the
cotton that must be used in some of the Southern mills cannot be
supplied locally because it is not grown in the neighbourhood, and the
requirements of these mills are met by transport arrangements which at
present cost a sum not altogether out of relation to similar costs in
the New England States and Lancashire. The percentages of freight
charges on raw material in 1900 were $2.18 in Georgia, $1.59 in North
Carolina, $1.17 in South Carolina, and the amazingly low figure of $1.20
in Massachusetts, but of course some part of the explanation is the
somewhat higher quality of cotton on an average that is worked up in
Massachusetts. For some years, however, the saving in labour has been a
most important economy. Large supplies of half-occupied white labour
existed in the Southern States among the families of small farmers who
flocked South after the Civil War, and in the districts of the decayed
hand industry in the mountains of Kentucky and North Carolina. For small
money wages much of this labour could be attracted to the mills. Negroes
do not work in the mills; the reason is said to be partly their own
disinclination and partly that they are not very efficient at factory
work. As outside labourers, however, they have afforded important aid at
a very trifling cost, but the expense of outside labour to a mill is
never an item of much weight. The halcyon days to employers, when keen
workers could be had for low wages, are now said to be past. The demand
for labour was considerable, and as time went on additional supplies
could be enticed only with the offer of better pay. In 1904 it was
reported that some mills were unable to get fully to work for wa